Happy Valentine’s Day, from all of us at Spectrum. Today and every day, we are so grateful that people like you open your hearts to our youth, to make sure they have a safe place to be, a supportive community, and the help they need to thrive.

Thank you for keeping our youth in your heart.

With love and gratitude,
The Spectrum Team

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Charlie and Winston Smith choose their bowls.

What follows is a note from our Executive Director, Mark Redmond.

Thank you to all who joined us at the Empty Bowl Dinner on October 12th.

I was awestruck by the compassion and caring you showed for our youth. I am so grateful that our young people can rely on you to offer a hand when the going gets tough.

As René said that night, “Spectrum is about creating that sense of family. It is about creating a sense of community and knowing that we are loved and supported. And that there are youth and staff and, also, wonderful people like you out here who are supporting us every day. And I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you are doing.”

Thanks to you, we raised $68,400 that night—$15,000 from the giving board alone! And because of the generosity of all who donated food and services to the event, almost all of the money raised will go directly to helping our youth build their own success.

Thank you for being a part of such a great night.

With gratitude,

Mark Redmond

Empty Bowl volunteers and Spectrum staff at the end of the night.

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Essex High School participated in the Spectrum Sleep Out for the second year, and raised over $500 this year for our youth. The following is a reflection from one student who slept out. It’s reprinted here with permission.

First of all, one challenging part was figuring out how I was going to stay on top of my homework and participate in this event because I typically do homework until 10pm. It took a lot of focused work ahead of time to make sure I had enough work done for school on Friday. It made me think about all the extra thinking ahead of time that someone would have to do if they didn’t have a steady or constant home to go to every night.

I was not cold sleeping outside, but I did have the advantage of a nice sleeping bag on a relatively warm night on dry ground. It made me thankful that my family has the ability to buy sleeping bags to go on vacations, but other people buy them as means of survival. It was hard, however, to sleep with all the bright lights and noise (from cars and other students).

Friday at school was really hard because I felt really tired and also kind of dirty and gross. It is so much harder to go to school without getting to wake up and take a shower and go through your normal morning routine. I struggled to stay focused during the day because I was tired.

Overall, this was a really gratifying experience that taught me about being comfortable and being uncomfortable, and it also gave me some perspective on what homeless teens face on an everyday basis. I am looking forward to participating in this event next year!

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From left, Donna Aiken, Ray Racine, Keith Flaherty, Dylan Kerkes, Dan Maxwell, and Annette Delphia, of Hallam-ICS.

This is a guest blog post written by Ray Racine, Senior Control Systems Engineer at Hallam-ICS. It was first published on their blog.

On Thursday, March 23, six of our Hallam-ICS crew slept out for Spectrum. Donna Aiken, Annette Delphia, Dylan Kerkes, Keith Flaherty, Dan Maxwell and myself “braved the elements” for this great cause. Wednesday night got down to about 5 degrees (F); so 25 degrees on Thursday night was a blessing indeed.

Spectrum is a local organization focused on helping homeless teens and young adults. From a safe place to sleep, to counseling, to basic medical care; this fantastic group is dedicated to helping youth turn troubled lives around and grow into healthy, independent adults.

It is sobering to consider that in a small place like Vermont, this group serves over 2,000 young adults a year in the Burlington area. That’s 2,000 kids in really bad situations that Spectrum helps.

This was year six for their Sleep Out, which is one of their major fundraisers. The event raised over $347,000. Our team members were able to raise just over $7,000, which Hallam-ICS matched. That made our contribution over $14,000.

Executive Director Mark Redmond rallies the crowd.

So how does the Sleep Out work? We arrived at the rally point around 9PM. Pizza, soda, and coffee were served by local businesses. (Coffee, are you kidding me? I don’t want to have to get out of my sleeping bag until morning.) Mark, the director of Spectrum, gave a great pep talk. Everybody introduced themselves and their group affiliation. Then, one of the young people that has recently stepped into good, full-time, work—after a rough patch—gave her personal story of Spectrum. Really reminded everybody why they were there. Then, off to the outdoors.

We had a couple of feet of snow recently; so our sleeping area was nice and crunchy. Vermont Tent set up two big canopies (tents with no sides) and laid tarps on the ground. Everyone spread out to stake their spot. Cardboard as a ground mat provided insulation from the ice beneath the big tarps.

Under the tents, we bedded down for the night.

How did we sleep? Funny you should ask.

I run pretty warm; so I did not suffer from the cold—that was, until I rolled off of my matt and started melting ice. But, between the symphony of snoring, the crunching of ice underfoot, and the hourly ringing of the church bells, sleep was scarce. However cheer was in great abundance.

Thanks to the team, the employee-owners of Hallam-ICS, & our sponsors for helping to make this event so successful!

The post Sleep Out for a Cause appeared first on Spectrum Youth & Family Services.

From left to right, Ilka Pritchard, Jess Smith, and Shannon Foster, Dealer.com team members

This is a guest blog post by Ilka Pritchard, Certified Scrum Master at Dealer.com.

Just like that, the 2017 Executive Sleep Out is over and I’m back in my warm home reflecting on the significance of this annual event. My colleagues and I raised over $26,000, and I’m left feeling proud, hopeful, and like we’re nowhere close to being “done” supporting our at-risk and homeless youth.

This year our Dealer.com team was 10 people—a new event for a few, and for several of us it was our second, third, fourth (for me) and even fifth time. Every year leading up to the Sleep Out, I worry about reaching my personal goal as well as the team goal, but am always astounded by the support I see from friends, colleagues, and community members allowing us to CRUSH our goal.

I’ve seen donations from all parts of the world, colleagues paying top dollar for baked goods & chili tastings, local businesses making generous donations for our silent auctions and raffles, and more.

Why? Why do people open their wallets, share posts, and, for the love of Dog, spend a night sleeping outside in the cold when they have their own warm beds at home? It’s simple: most of us empathize with the young people who are hovering somewhere between childhood and adulthood who lack the basics to survival that we often take for granted.

Another reason why we see such an outpouring of support has everything to do with Spectrum and their unwavering commitment to giving young people the tools they need to build a path to a successful life and to thrive. From what I’ve learned about Spectrum, mere survival is not enough. From the Drop-In Center that has the feeling of a family living room, to the housing, counseling, healthcare, and all other services they provide, Spectrum cares for their young clients holistically and it is evident in all of their interactions.

Spectrum’s integrity, and the creative way they’ve found to run an effective, low-overhead fundraiser is a winning combination. Plus, the Sleep Out provides a profoundly special opportunity to be connected with and surrounded by like-minded people with a commitment to our community.

In a sometimes-crazy world it gives me peace of mind to know how many people can come together to help a cause like this. It is my wish that the youth we serve feel the love and care that we put into these efforts and that it gives them hope – because hope is something money can’t buy.

Photos by Brian Jenkins

See you at the 2018 Spectrum Sleep Out!

Spectrum and the Dealer.com team would like to thank these businesses for their generous donations to our silent auction that helped us raise over $4,000 beyond our individual and corporate funds raised:

ArtsRiot; The Spot; WND&WVS; Play Dog Play; Oh My Dog!; Dedalus Wine Shop; Hen of the Wood; Burton Snowboards, Inc.; Must Love Yarn; Higher Ground.

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This post originally appeared on the Vermont Gas blog.

The Vermont Gas CARE (Community Action & Rewarding Empowerment) program is all about bringing out employees together to support important community causes. Our work is about more than just corporate giving, it’s about engaging our team to get involved and give back.

Vermont Gas, for the second year, is a sponsor of the Spectrum Sleep Out at the silver level. The overnight event taking place this Thursday, March 23, to raise money to provide homeless and at-risk youth the services they need to build future success and independence. The CARE team wanted to engage our employees in joining the fundraising effort and they stepped up in a big way.

So, how can a pie help empower Vermont teenagers and young adults?

Last week, Vermont Gas employees celebrated National Pi Day (3.14) by hosting a pie fundraiser for Spectrum. Employees baked and bought 16 of the sweetest pies to raise money for the Sleep Out. In all, the pies raised $230. But our employees didn’t stop there.

Not only does March bring us Pi Day but it’s also March Madness—and we have some serious college hoops fan here so we raised another $340 for Spectrum in our annual company-wide NCAA March Madness Bracket Challenge. The winner receives bragging rights and an additional modest donation to the charity of their choice.

We’re fortunate to have jobs that afford us a safe and warm place to live and plenty of nourishing food–like our delicious pies–to eat, and we want that for all of our neighbors. So, the CARE team and our generous employees have come together, added a little fun and friendly competition, all to donate over $3,000 to support Spectrum.

The CARE Team helps guide where Vermont Gas donates its money and time and aligns Vermont Gas’ community giving and philanthropic efforts with the company’s vision and values. Next up is Green Up Day! Until then…

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“…extraordinary educators believe that, more than academics, it is love, empathy and life skills that give at-risk students command of their own futures. This coming-of-age story watches education combat the crippling effects of poverty on the lives of these so-called ‘bad kids.'”

Please join us on Monday, March 6th for a FREE local premiere of The Bad Kids, a film by Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe.

The screening begins at 7 PM at Main Street Landing, and is followed by a panel discussion including our Executive Director, Mark Redmond.

A very special thanks to Vermont PBS for making this event possible. Questions? Call (802) 864-7423 x351.

What: The Bad Kids local premiere
Where: Main Street Landing, 60 Lake St., Burlington, VT.
When: Monday, March 6th, 7 PM.
Cost: Free!

The post At a remote Mojave Desert school… appeared first on Spectrum Youth & Family Services.

The City of Burlington team sleeps out in 2016. Clockwise from top right: John St. Amour, Neale Lunderville, Mike Kanarick, and Val DeBrita.

John St. Amour, who’s sleeping out for his second year with the City of Burlington, shared his story about why he’s sleeping out, and we wanted to share it with you. On March 23rd, community and business leaders are sleeping out for one night in solidarity with youth who are homeless in the Spectrum Sleep Out. That same weekend, hundreds of students will do the same.

I chose to participate in my first Sleep Out in 2016. I have a family member who had used Spectrum’s services, and while they chose to not be successful, I wanted to give back for the kids in our community that really could benefit.

I had no idea what to expect, since I had never “camped” in winter before. I went home and shared my involvement with my wife and my children (4 & 6) at the time. My kids did not understand why Daddy was going to sleep outside on the ground, instead of a warm bed.

I explained to them that many people locally do not have the comforts we do, and it was time to give back. I also said that if something ever happens, and one of them needs support, I want to make sure Spectrum exists and can be there for them.

I am participating again this year for this simple reason: the kids on the street need our support and they need our voices. I will survive the night out, I will go to work Friday, then go back home to my loving family, and a warm house and bed. Someday, I hope my efforts—OUR efforts—can make the reality that we live in the same for others who are less fortunate.

Believe me when I tell you this: the Sleep Out is so much more than sleeping outside in a sleeping bag on some cardboard with a canopy overhead. Come join our efforts and learn how you can make a difference!

Register for the Sleep Out by February 28th and you’re entered to win an iPad Air 2 from Small Dog Electronics!

Mike, Val, John, and Neale at the 2016 Sleep Out, ready to head outside for the night.

The post “Why I sleep out?” appeared first on Spectrum Youth & Family Services.

This is a letter from Mark, our Executive Director.

The snow has fallen and the darkness comes early each night. Young people who are homeless or at-risk of becoming homeless need us more than ever—this winter, and into the future.

The good news is, you can help! Join us in sleeping outside overnight in solidarity with our youth while raising funds to support them, and you can make sure teens and young adults have a place to go when the wind starts to bite.

The Executive Sleep Out will be Thursday, March 23rd, and the Student Sleep Out is March 23rd-26th.

Can you stand in solidarity with our youth and sleep out this year? Register now and let our youth know you’ve got their back.

With gratitude,

Mark Redmond
Executive Director

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One of the youth who accesses our Drop-In Center wrote this article about a recent cooking contest we held at the First Unitarian Universalist Church at the top of Church Street in Burlington, VT, and we wanted to share it with you!

Different kitchen, different ingredients

4 teams, 3 rounds, 2 winners, 1 day

In November, six individuals from Spectrum Drop-In participated in the first ever “Chopped,” based off of the cooking show on The Food Network.

The event was held in the basement of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Burlington and lasted a total of 3 hours.

Tensions ran high within the first few minutes as contestants were forced to work together to locate tools and ingredients for their recipes.

Coming in with a wide range of culinary experience, many chefs surprised themselves with the final results of their work. Prizes were awarded to each contestant at the end of the competition. Participants are hoping for another round of Chopped sometime in the winter or early spring.

How it works:

Each round presented the chefs with unconventional ingredients to incorporate into their creations, which had to be cooked or baked and plated with reasonable presentation within a set time limit ranging from 15-30 minutes.

One team was eliminated at the end of each round. The contestants’ creations were judged based on taste, presentation, and creativity.

The entrée course in progress.

The winning dessert, incorporating graham crackers and chocolate fudge.

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